- In Newsroom, âEveryone Seemed Ready to Move Onâ
- N.Y. Times Puts a Training Program on Hiatus
- Ciprian-Matthews Named EVP at CBS News
- Columnist Gave Black Journalists a Platform
- Ex-Nashville Anchor Sees Lack of Progress
- Rebooting Shows With White Casts Not a Good Sign
- Kenya Ignores Court Order to Restore TV Signals
In Newsroom, âEveryone Seemed Ready to Move Onâ
Robert Moore, the managing editor of the Daily News in New York and its top-ranking African American, has left the news organization along with Alexander âDocâ Jones, the Sunday editor, the Tronc parent company confirmed on Thursday. Both were investigated over sexual harassment allegations.
âMostly mixed feelings about Rob,â a newsroom staffer told Journal-isms Thursday night. âStill a little sadness despite the circumstances. Not so much for Doc. But everyone seemed ready to move on. Robâs name came off the masthead today. But his picture was still on the wall with the other Pulitzer winners.â
The New York Association of Black Journalists awarded Moore its Trailblazer Award in 2016. Asked to comment, NYABJ president Julie Walker told Journal-isms by email on Friday, âThis is a national issue. We support those who speak out and respect the investigative process.â
Writing about Moore a week ago, Andy Campbell and Maxwell Strachan of HuffPost outlined how 20 sources âdescribed a wide spectrum of inappropriate and threatening behavior â both in public and in private â by a man who abused his position of power inside the Daily Newsâ âfrathouseâ atmosphere in a way that kept many employees quiet.â On Thursday, they published a similar story about Jones.
âAt the New York Daily News, they came to be known as âDoc assignments,â and employees who had been there long enough could spot them from a mile away,â they wrote.
âThe pitches followed a familiar pattern: Longtime Daily News editor Alexander âDocâ Jones would call upon a young female staffer, often outside his remit as a manager, to write a first-person story about an event he wanted her to attend. How could a young journalist resist? Here was an established personality in New York media offering up the possibility of a prominent byline.
âHeâd use that power to his advantage. Employees at the paper said he would approach young female reporters and assign them first-person stories about events in New York area â specifically events that obligated them to wear skimpy clothing to be shown in images in the newspaper or on the website. . . .â
When Moore won the Trailblazer Award, Larry McShane wrote in the Daily News:
âMoore joined The News as a staff writer in 2004 and became the 97-year-old tabloidâs first African-American managing editor in 2011 before a promotion to Head of News, his current position.
â âYour steady climb from a staff writer to your current management position is an inspiration to journalists everywhere,â read a letter from the NYABJ informing Moore of the award.âMoore, 45, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, attended Syracuse University and previously worked at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Charlotte Observer newspapers.
â âWhen I was a kid, I always wanted to be a journalist and I always wanted to work at the New York Daily News,â he said. âOnce I started at The News, I was given every opportunity to succeed.â . . .â
Moore told Journal-isms when he was named managing editor, âLong term, my goal is to run the whole thing.â
Last year, Moore accepted the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service on behalf of the News along with Sarah Ryley, formerly of the News, and Eric Umansky of ProPublica, for uncovering, primarily through Ryleyâs work, widespread abuse of eviction rules by the police to oust hundreds of people, most of them poor and of color. The News and ProPublica jointly published the story.
Paul Farhi, Washington Post: Most famous men accused of sexual misconduct have been lying low. Not Tavis Smiley.
N.Y. Times Puts a Training Program on Hiatus
The New York Times is overhauling a longstanding program designed to bring new journalists into the newsroom, and two reporters have lost their jobs in the process.
The suspension of the program was not announced, even internally. One of the reporters told Journal-isms she was a year and a half into the two-year Intermediate Reporter Program, known as 8i, when she was told she would have to leave. âMy understanding was that I was one of the last people admitted to the program,â she messaged. âRight now Iâm just exploring opportunities.â
Ted Kim, named director of the Newsroom Fellowship and Internship Program in November, was given a mandate to âhelp us overhaul the 8i program,â according to an announcement then from assistant editor Carolyn Ryan. âOur goal is to remake 8i into a true fellowship that promotes diversity and training,â Kim told Journal-isms by email.
âThere is a consensus in the newsroom that our previous program drifted from that mission. I wonât get into specific numbers. Yes, we had to make some hard choices but we remain deeply committed to the mission and the 8i program.â
The 8i program âfor years hired young reporters on a probationary basis, rotating them around usually to several different desks and then opting to make them permanent (union) employees if they proved themselves,â according to Doree Shafrir of the New York Observer, writing in 2007 about Brian Stelter, a former Times media writer who is white. He came through the program and now is host of CNNâs âReliable Sources.â
Gregory Winter, deputy editor of the Timesâ International Desk who is African American, came to the Times as an intern in 2000, then joined the 8i program.
Ciprian-Matthews Named EVP at CBS News
Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews has been promoted to executive vice president of CBS News, the network announced Thursday.
In the new role, she continues to work directly with David Rhodes, president of CBS News, âin overseeing day-to-day news operations, including supporting editorial, personnel and newsgathering initiatives,â the announcement said.âCiprian-Matthews has been with CBS News for 25 years and has served as CBS Newsâ Senior Vice President of News Administration since January 2015. She is a multiple award-winning journalist and accomplished manager who has coordinated the efforts of overseas and domestic bureaus, correspondents and producers.
â âIngrid is an extraordinary journalist and newsroom executive who is passionate about the integrity of CBS News and the people who work here,â said Rhodes. âHer leadership has been central to our organizationâs growth and transformation in this digital age.â
âPreviously, she was CBS Newsâ Vice President of News (2011-2015), a role in which she coordinated all day-to-day news coverage. Before that, Ciprian-Matthews served as CBS Newsâ Foreign Editor (2006-2011); Senior Broadcast Producer for the âCBS Evening Newsâ (2004-2006); and Senior Producer for CBS Newsâ foreign coverage (2000-2004). In 1998, she became the Deputy Bureau Chief for the CBS News London bureau (1998-2000) and served as Senior Broadcast Producer for CBS Newsâ âThis Morningâ and the âCBS Morning Newsâ (1994-1998). . . .
âIn 2016 the National Association of Hispanic Journalists presented Ciprian-Matthews with the Presidential Award of Impact, citing her vast news experience and deep commitment to journalistic excellence.
âShe was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. . . .â
Columnist Gave Black Journalists a Platform
âWhen reporter Nicholas von Hoffman joined The Washington Post in 1966, he brought with him a flair for controversy that eventually triggered a resignation threat from a top editor, a boycott from advertisers and, according to Post historian Chalmers M. Roberts, âproduced more angry letters to the editor than the work of any other single reporter in the paperâs history,â â Harrison Smith reported Thursday for the Post.
Von Hoffman died Thursday in Rockport, Maine. He was 88.
He âhad worked for community organizer Saul Alinsky in Chicago before reporting on the civil rights movement in the South while sporting an elegant suit and a prematurely white shock of hair,â Smith wrote. When seven black reporters known as the Metro Seven filed a discrimination complaint against the Post in 1972, von Hoffman turned over his column to the issue.
âWhat, we invariably ask, do they want?â von Hoffman, who was white, wrote in that March 24, 1972, column. âTo learn what they want in their own words Iâve excerpted sections from two documents.â
The first was a statement of support for the black Metro reporters written by future icons Robert C. Maynard and Roger Wilkins and signed by 26 black staff members.
âBut the lack of black participation in the shaping of the news about the society in which they play so vital a role has led to unfortunate distortions of the basic posture of the community on such vital questions as crime in the streets and the busing of school children,â it said in part. âThe complexity of those issues has been masterfully distorted by politicians for political ends in ways that reflect almost nothing of the stake of the black community in those vital questions. . . .â
The second was a letter of resignation from the Associated Press by Austin Scott, later Austin Long-Scott, who had been hired 11 years earlier as the APâs first black reporter. He was joining the Postâs national reporting staff.
âWe now have, by the latest word I got from Mr. [Keith] Fuller, 18 black reporters, none of whom have had anything like the chances AP offered to me. And as Iâve said to you and others in repeated letters, I think the time for tokens passed long ago.
âOnce Iâm gone, AP will have only three ways to deal with the black community stories that I cover, from black politics to welfare to the Panthers: Ignore them, send in white reporters, or bring more black reporters along faster . . .
âIn any case I think I will have done the AP good by stepping aside, whether I help stop the pretense that we have done what we should, or help us to move faster. . . .
âThereâs another reason for this resignation â Iâve run out of ways to fight. All those letters didnât do any good. The memos didnât do any good. The discussion didnât do any good. Even the examples set in the form of stories have not persuaded AP line bureaus, or AP executives, to become more aware of the cavernous gap between what happens in black communities around the country, and what AP says about those black communities on its wires.
âTwo of the best stories that I wrote last year, stories that cost the AP nine days of my time and $1,000 in expenses, did not even get as far as the editorâs pencil. . . We may have the best intentions, but we certainly donât rank them very high in priority.
âClosely related to that is APâs record in searching out and hiring black talent. And here, shameful is the kindest word I can think of. I marvel every day that there seem to be more black sheriffs, more black businessmen, more black educators and policemen, more black judges and state legislators and computer programmers and salesmen and heavy equipment operators.
âBut in a nation of 22 million black people, only a couple of dozen of us have the potential to make it in The Associated Press. Itâs funny how talent is distributed. We can sing and dance and hold conventions, but none of us can write.
â. . . I think that in 10 years, changes in the AP will have proved me correct. Times change, and while institutions move grudgingly, they usually move when it becomes painful not to . . . .
âItâs crucial, I think, that we stop explaining why we canât and start doing a little bit more. Each week, just a little bit more. Because if we do that, one day weâll be able to look back and realize we donât have to spend all that time any more thinking up excuses.â
Long-Scott was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists in 2016 after 29 years as a journalist for the AP, the Post and other news organizations and a teacher for 20 years at San Francisco State University.
Ex-Nashville Anchor Sees Lack of Progress
âNews 2 personality Anne Holt â among Nashvilleâs first African-American TV anchors â said she is disappointed and concerned the station has only one full-time African-American personality on air,â Brad Schmitt reported Tuesday for the Tennessean in Nashville.
âHoltâs comments came after the station announced traffic reporter Paige Hill, who is African-American, is leaving. Hill, whose last day on air is Wednesday, is joining the gubernatorial campaign of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, the stationâs website said.
âIâve made no secret of being disappointed that we donât have [more] representation on air,â Holt told The Tennessean.
âItâs a concern for me. I wish we had a different makeup,â said Holt, who started as anchor/reporter at News 2 in 1976 before becoming the main anchor in 1980.
âHolt announced a year ago she was leaving the anchor desk, but she still produces weekly segments for News 2's afternoon newscasts.
âNews 2 general manager Tracey Rogers and news director Elbert Tucker did not respond to emails and voicemail messages asking for comment Tuesday. . . .â
Rebooting Shows With White Casts Not a Good Sign
âLast week CBS announced that itâs picking up a âMurphy Brownâ revival with Candice Bergen, who starred in the original (airing for 10 seasons starting in 1988), back in the title role,â Nina Metz reported Thursday for the Chicago Tribune.
âDays later in a head-spinning bit of news, CBS said it has plans to bring back yet two more â80s-era shows â âMagnum P.I.â and âCagney & Laceyâ â both as reboots, with new casts and showrunners.
âIf this feels like an avalanche, youâre right â the revivals include âWill & Graceâ and âRoseanneâ already in the can with the original casts, and a multitude of reboots in the works: âParty of Five, âThe Greatest American Hero,â âCharmedâ and âRoswell.â
âThe most common (and exasperated!) response Iâve seen so far: Ugh, Hollywood has run out of ideas. But hereâs what also jumps out: The creators of these original shows were white (and mostly male). The top-billed actors on these shows were white as well. Itâs not hard to see the potential downsides to this in terms of who is getting opportunities now.
âOr as Keah Brown, an entertainment writer and creator of the #DisabledAndCute hashtag, said on Twitter: âInstead of rebooting shows, why not try letting black and brown people share our ideas for brand new shows where we exist?â . . .â
Kenya Ignores Court Order to Restore TV Signals
âKenyaâs three leading TV stations were off the air for a fourth day Friday as police prevented the delivery of a court order to restore their transmissions after they tried to broadcast opposition leader Raila Odinga swearing himself in as âthe peopleâs president,â Tom Odula reported Friday for the Associated Press. âThe government has called the ceremony an act of treason, and its arrests of âconspiratorsâ continued.
âRights activist Okiya Omtata said he was forced to paste the High Court order, issued a day earlier, on the wall of Kenyaâs communications authority as police told journalists to stay away from its gate. Police were not immediately available to comment. . . .â
Odula also wrote, âAs journalists and rights groups raised an outcry over the government shutdown of TV stations, the United States urged Kenyaâs authorities to respect the court order and allow broadcasts to resume. . . .â
Committee to Protect Journalists: Sudan detains local journalist, confiscates newspapers following reporting on protests
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Journal-isms is originally published on journal-isms.com. Reprinted on The Root by permission.